The Australian Women's Register

1 hour 41 minutes Christobel Oldfield, nee McInnes, was born at Millicent, South Australia and grew up on a farm west of Lucindale. Chris explains how she became politically conscious through her parents’ legal challenge about drainage rates. Chris began her education by correspondence and then attended local schools before finishing at Scotch College in Adelaide. She married in 1977 and had two daughters. Chris did further studies part-time and in 1985 breached the male bastion of the Greenways branch of the United Farmers and Stockowners to gain insight into issues she was studying in Psychology. Assisting in her mother’s Lucindale shop gave Chris a wider understanding of the impact on families of the rural crisis. In July 1993 Chris and five other women formed Rural Women for Justice to educate outsiders and set up legal aid and mediation services. Chris describes the intensive activities that achieved these aims, and her strong motivation to continue to help rural women.